Seoul specialty coffee shop tasting a COE lot vs Geisha: Central Site

Among Hapjeong cafés, this is the one I picked for a day I actually wanted to drink coffee properly. Most days I just grab a light Americano, but this time I visited Central Site Hapjeong wanting to compare two different specialty coffees while reading the bean descriptions.

In the end the coffee itself tasted great, but honestly what stuck with me more was the whole process — picking the beans, smelling the aroma, reading the description cards while drinking.

Where is Central Site Hapjeong, and what are the hours?

• Location: 1F, 20 Yanghwa-ro 7-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul
• Hours: 08:00 – 22:00 (weekends 08:30 – 22:00)

Of all the cafés in Hapjeong, this one has decent accessibility too, just a short walk from Hapjeong Station. It's easy to swing by after a meal in the area, and it's also an easy place to visit purely for the coffee itself.

How the coffee menu differs from a regular Seoul café

The menu at Central Site Hapjeong has the usual espresso drinks, but off to one side there's a separate lineup of specialty brewing coffee. When I visited there was a fairly wide range of bean options, from Panama Geisha to Ethiopia and Colombia, including beans you don't often see at a regular café, like a C.O.E-winning lot or a Geisha. You don't need to be a coffee expert — just reading the flavor notes on the menu was enough to make choosing the beans genuinely fun.

In front of the bar, the actual beans for sale were displayed together with their description cards. I could see in person the Ethiopia Tamiru 74158 Natural and Colombia Quebraditas Geisha Washed I drank that day. Having the beans and the descriptions together, instead of just a name printed on a menu, definitely made me more interested in the coffee itself.

Three kinds of tiramisu at Central Site Hapjeong

The showcase also had desserts to pair with the coffee. When I went there was classic tiramisu, brownie tiramisu, and Lotus tiramisu. Since I was already ordering two coffees, I figured dessert shouldn't be too sweet, so I went with the classic tiramisu.

Inside Central Site Hapjeong: a room built around the coffee

The inside of Central Site Hapjeong felt relatively calm. There are bar seats by the window, plus small round tables and stools, so it didn't feel awkward coming alone for coffee. The entrance area is fairly open, so natural light reached well into the space during the day.

I'm not a fan of specialty cafés that go too dark and moody, and Central Site handles serious coffee while still keeping the space comfortable enough that it'd work fine as a study café too.

Smelling the beans while the hand drip is brewed

While waiting for the hand drip, I sat at a spot right up front. A staff member showed me the beans I'd ordered and handed them over for me to smell first. That's not an experience I get often, and it was pretty great. Smelling the beans themselves before extraction, rather than only catching the aroma from the finished cup, meant I drank the coffee with a bit more focus once it arrived.

What we ordered and what it cost

• Ethiopia Tamiru 74158 Natural 2021 C.O.E #5 — ₩11,000
• Colombia Finca Quebraditas Geisha Washed Peach Punch — ₩12,000
• Classic Tiramisu — ₩8,500

It's not a cheap round compared to a usual cup of coffee, but the whole point that day was comparing two different specialty beans rather than a plain Americano. And both cups came with a description card, so I could keep checking what exactly I was drinking as I went.

Colombia Quebraditas Geisha Washed: how it tasted

The description card listed fruit-forward notes like yellow peach, apricot, white grape, and watermelon.

Held up to the sunlight, the cup was quite clear and bright. When I drank it, it wasn't heavy or dense — the taste spread brightly across the palate and the finish wrapped up fairly clean. I especially liked how the aroma burst forward on the first sip, and as it cooled a bit, the fruit sweetness came through more clearly. Of the two, this was the one that felt more like the classic bright, fragrant Geisha coffee.

Ethiopia Tamiru 74158 Natural, a C.O.E #5 lot

The description card noted this was a lot that placed 5th in the 2021 Ethiopia Cup of Excellence, grown in the Bensa region using the 74158 variety. The card emphasized notes of ripe strawberry sweetness, fruity aroma, and a bright fragrance.

The Ethiopia Tamiru had a more complex aroma right from the start. Where the Quebraditas leaned toward bright, clean fruit like peach or white grape, the Tamiru layered berry and tropical-fruit sweetness with a jasmine-like floral note. Taking a sip, it wasn't just acidity up front — fruit sweetness came along with it, and it wrapped up cleaner and brighter toward the finish.

The Quebraditas felt bright and fragrant, like peach or white grape, while the Tamiru felt more complex, layering berry and tropical fruit with a jasmine-like note.

Classic tiramisu with a hand-drip coffee

Two coffees alone felt like it'd leave something missing, so I also ordered the classic tiramisu. It came in a square shape, quite thick, with a generous dusting of cocoa powder on top.

Once I tried it, the slightly bitter cocoa on top combined with the cream underneath paired surprisingly well with the hand drip. The sponge wasn't overly soggy either — it cut smoothly along with the cream.

After drinking the bright, fruity coffees, the cream and cocoa flavors shifted the mood in my mouth, and going back to the coffee afterward, the aroma felt fresh all over again.

Who Central Site Hapjeong suits best

Of all the Hapjeong cafés, this one suits people who want something a bit more special than a regular Americano, people who like specialty coffee or hand drip, and people who enjoy slowly comparing different beans. If I go back, I'd like to pick two different beans from whatever's newly in that day and compare again. Even if you don't know much about coffee, telling the staff your preferences and starting from smelling the beans is a good way to enjoy Central Site more.